Like mourners at a wake, a steady stream of people filed past the small mountain of debris that less than 24 hours earlier was home to the Lazy Beagle Pub & Grill and three other Main Street businesses. Some snapped pictures. Others shot video of the wreckage that remained after a Tuesday evening explosion ignited a fire and a second explosion that destroyed the Hoos building at Main and Pearl streets.

They reminisced about the destruction of the historic structure, which was built in 1937 along the Little Beaverkill River. And they spoke of what its loss means for the business owners and their employees.

“My heart and soul was in this place,” Lazy Beagle Manager Peter Howley said as looked over the pile of charred wood, glass shards and other debris. “It’s heartbreaking.”

Fire investigators began combing through the remains Tuesday evening, focusing on a propane as the cause.

Along with the Lazy Beagle, the fire destroyed Hot Corner Sports Collectibles; Moose-Be-Morning Coffee Co. Café; and Willow and Brown, a clothing and housewares shop.

Longtime residents remember when it was Hoos Bakery. It was currently owned by the family of Barry Foster, who also owned Hot Corner. Barry Foster’s son, Ryan Foster, was at the scene first thing in the morning and remained there throughout the afternoon.

“It’s pretty surreal,” he said. “It’s not just a building; it’s all of the businesses too.”

The loss of those businesses creates a huge vacuum in the tiny hamlet’s economy days before the beginning of the holiday shopping rush.

Willow and Brown co-owner David Walton was planning to spend Wednesday and Thursday decorating his windows in anticipation of Saturday shoppers.

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nstead, Walton, who is also president of Livingston Manor’s Chamber of Commerce, spent Wednesday talking with an insurance representative and hoping to catch the UPS driver so he could have merchandise returned.

“We basically built it up until it was a break-even thing,” he said of the business. “We were really hoping to do better this year.”

Many were seeing the extent of the damage for the first time after a night of trading phone calls and anxious worrying.

Van Morrow, who owns the building at 8 Pearl St., dressed quickly and left his Shandalee home after getting a call from one of his tenants.

“Of course, you hope that no one got hurt, you feel bad for the people who owned that building and had their businesses in there and you think, ‘Did anything happen to my building?’ ” he said.

Les Mattis and Ruth Brown, friends of the Foster family, walked past the site in the morning. They bemoaned the loss of the Lazy Beagle, a regular stop for meals where they often ran into longtime friends.

Others recalled the Hoos family, whose longtime bakery gave the building its name and who built a business that was one-part gathering spot.

Robert Davis remembered the family giving him and other kids pieces of dough to use for bait as they fished in the Little Beaverkill. .

“This is going to be a major change to the landscape of Livingston Manor,” he said.

lsparks@th-record.com

Irwin's sister, Cheryl Gugliotta, was one of several longtime residents who thought of the frequent flooding as they watched the building burn. "It seems like we've had our rough share of things," she said.